A 52-year old man has pleaded guilty to causing hurt to a female ticket inspector on board an SMRT bus.
Govindasamy Lakshmanan was sentenced to three months' jail on Monday for committing a rash act to endanger life. He also admitted that he was in possession of a 10cm-long penknife without a lawful purpose along Serangoon Road on 17th November last year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chee Ee Ling told the Court that Lakshmanan was with his two sons, 22-year old Rubenkumar Lakshmanan and 25-year old Sathya Kumar Lakshmanan, when they met two of Rubenkumar's friends at the Tekka area.
The group then discussed and decided to rob a Bangladeshi national who was carrying a laptop bag. The group followed the Bangladeshi national along Serangoon Road where they punched him and grabbed his bag.
Rubenkumar then took the bag and ran towards Tekka market, while two relatives of the Bangladeshi national gave chase. He then boarded bus Service No. 67, and was followed by the two relatives who tried to pull him out.
When Lakshmanan saw this, he pulled out his penknife and waved it wildly at the crowd to demand that they stop pulling his son. In his act, he slashed the lower back of Ticket Inspector Lim Chow Chen, who suffered a 5cm cut.
For causing hurt by a rash act, Lakshmanan could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined up to $5,000. For possession of a knife, he could have been sentenced to two years' jail.
